In Egypt, Blinken urges regional leaders to ‘press Hamas to say yes’ to Gaza deal
Report says US may separately negotiate release of
5 American hostages if talks fail; US diplomat lands in Israel ahead of
talks with Netanyahu, Gallant
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken disembarks from a plane in Tel Aviv, October 16, 2023 (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool/AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on
Monday at a critical time as Washington seeks to increase pressure on
Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the war does
not expand into Lebanon.
In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas terrorists attacked
Israel on October 7, sparking the ongoing war, the top US diplomat made
his first stop in Cairo before heading to Israel. He is also set to
travel to Jordan and Qatar this week.
With no firm response yet from Hamas to the proposal received 10 days
ago, Blinken started his visit by meeting with President Abdel Fattah
el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with Hamas.
Blinken once again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said
has wide international support and has been accepted by Israel. “My
message to governments throughout the region… if you want a ceasefire,
press Hamas to say ‘yes,'” he told reporters before leaving Cairo.
He said the plan on the table is the “single best way” to get to a
ceasefire, release the remaining hostages held in Gaza and improve
regional security.
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“I believe strongly… that the overwhelming majority of people,
whether they’re in Israel, the West Bank, in Gaza… actually want to
believe in a future where Israelis and Palestinians would live in peace
and security,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
(3rd-L) meets with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, on
June 10, 2024 (Amr Nabil / POOL / AFP)
Hamas denounced Blinken’s comments.
“Blinken’s speech during his visit to Egypt is an example of bias to
Israel and it offers an American cover to the holocaust conducted by the
occupation in Gaza,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
In Egypt, Blinken also “discussed the importance of reopening the
Rafah Border Crossing” during his meeting with Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, according to a US readout.
A US official and an Israeli official told
The Times of Israel last week that talks between Israel, Egypt and the
United States aimed at reopening Rafah remained at an impasse over
Israel’s refusal to accept any involvement from the Palestinian
Authority in the management of the border terminal.
The sides also discussed the latest Israeli hostage deal proposal,
“post-conflict governance” in Gaza, “which the ceasefire proposal would
advance,” the State Department readout said.
Blinken “reaffirmed the United States’ rejection of any forced
displacement of Palestinians from Gaza” — a line that the US regularly
includes in US readouts on meetings with Egyptian officials due to
Cairo’s sensitivity to the possibility that Israeli military operations
in Gaza will lead to the mass migration of Palestinians into the Sinai.
Blinken landed in Israel on Monday afternoon ahead of evening
meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken,
speaks to reporters after his meeting with Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, at Cairo airport, Egypt, Monday, June 10, 2024.
(AP Photo/Amr Nabil, Pool)
On Monday, NBC News reported
that Washington officials have weighed holding independent negotiations
with Hamas for the release of five US citizens among the hostages if
the latest diplomacy efforts fail.
The report, which cited two current and two former senior US
officials, said Israel would be cut out of the talks, which would be
held via Qatar as a mediator.
The five hostages who are still thought to be alive — among a total of eight taken who hold dual US-Israeli citizenship — are Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Keith Siegel, and Omer Neutra. Officials are also hoping to recover the bodies of the three Americans who were killed that day, NBC reported.
While the deal would likely further strain ties between the Biden
administration and Netanyahu, it would also put additional domestic
political pressure on the prime minister who would be seen as failing to
secure the release of Israeli hostages while the US was managing to
free the American ones.
The White House declined to comment on the report and Israel’s Kan
public broadcaster cited a government source as saying Jerusalem is
unaware of any such plan.
The Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel in response to
the report that “Israel welcomes any attempt to free our hostages.”
An official in the PMO added that Netanyahu will raise the matter during his meeting with Blinken on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
arrives at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, on June 10, 2024. (Photo by
JACK GUEZ / POOL / AFP)
A US official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that
the NBC report was exaggerated and that the administration is not
currently focused on alternatives to the current hostage deal on the
table.
Blinken was asked about the NBC report during a press conference in Cairo and gave a similar dismissal.
“Ay number one priority as secretary of state is to ensure the
well-being of Americans who are in harm’s way anywhere in the world,
including those who are being unjustly detained or being held hostage.
The most effective way to get everyone home, including the American
hostages, is through [the Israeli] proposal, is through the ceasefire
deal that’s on the table right now. That’s what we’re focused on,”
Blinken said.
Blinken’s trip comes after US President Joe Biden on May 31 outlined a
three-phase ceasefire proposal from Israel that envisions an eventual
permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and
Palestinian security prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
On October 7 Hamas led 3,000 terrorists in a cross-border attack that
killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage to the Gaza Strip. In
response, Israel launched an assault to destroy Hamas, topple its regime
in Gaza, and free the hostages, of whom 120 still remain in captivity.
However, Biden’s framework appears snagged on the key point of
whether the plan he promoted would bring an immediate and permanent end
to the fighting. Hamas is insisting it must, whereas Israel has vowed to
not stop until the job of eradicating the terror group is done.
On Saturday Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October in a raid in central Gaza.
Artist Zeev Engelmayer holds his painting
depicting Noa Argamani, one of four hostages rescued by the Israeli
army, as activists rally in Tel Aviv, on June 8, 2024. (Jack Guez / AFP)
In his talks with el-Sissi and Qatari leaders, whose countries are
the main mediators with Hamas in the ceasefire negotiations, Blinken
will stress the importance of persuading Hamas to accept the three-phase
proposal on the table. The plan calls for the release of more hostages
and a temporary pause in hostilities that could lead to the complete
withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
“We are hopeful that with enough of a chorus, the international
community all speaking with one voice, Hamas will get to the right
answer,” Sullivan told ABC’s “This Week.”
Blinken’s trip comes after Minister Benny Gantz announced his resignation
from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government on
Sunday, withdrawing the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s
otherwise right-wing and far-right coalition during the war in Gaza.
The departure of Gantz’s centrist party will not pose an immediate
threat to the government’s stability. But it could have a serious impact
nonetheless, leaving Netanyahu reliant on hardliners, with no end in
sight to the war and a possible escalation in fighting with the Lebanese
terror group Hezbollah.
Blinken has previously met with Gantz on visits to Israel.
The conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah is dangerously
poised after more than eight months of fighting triggered by the Gaza
war to the south, with hostilities escalating and both sides signaling a
readiness for a bigger confrontation. One day after the Hamas attack,
Iran-backed Hezbollah began attacking along the northern frontier saying
it was supporting Gaza, drawing strikes in response from the IDF.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks
during a news conference at the Sheba Tel HaShomer Hospital in Ramat
Gan, Israel, June 8, 2024. (Jack Guez/Pool Photo via AP)
Ceasefire talks have intensified since Biden’s speech and CIA
director William Burns met senior officials from mediators Qatar and
Egypt on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the plan.
Calling on Hamas to accept the ceasefire, Biden laid out a number of
the Israeli offer’s key elements in a high-stakes speech on May 31. This
triggered shockwaves in Jerusalem, where Netanyahu’s far-right
coalition partners threatened to bring down the government if the
premier advanced the proposal.
According to Biden the deal would see the remaining living female,
elderly, and sick hostages abducted during the Hamas-led October 7
onslaught released during a six-week first phase. The potential second
phase of the deal would see a permanent end to the war; and Biden said
Hamas would not remain in power in Gaza, but did not detail how that
would come about.
Head of the National Unity party Benny Gantz holds a press conference in Ramat Gan, June 9, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners would also be released by
Israel in the first phase, during which the sides would negotiate on an
agreed-upon number for how many would be released in the second.
Also during the first phase, Israel and Hamas would hold negotiations
regarding the terms of the permanent ceasefire and the release of the
remaining living hostages in the second phase. The third phase would see
the return of the bodies of hostages and the commencement of an
internationally backed reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Hamas officials have signaled they will reject the proposal,
saying it does not guarantee an end to the fighting that assures the
group’s continued existence. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake
Sullivan, said Sunday, “We have not gotten a formal answer from Hamas at
this time.”
Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar
speaks during a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Gaza City,
April 14, 2023. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)
US officials asserted to
The Times of Israel last month that while the hostage deal it is
advancing may allow Hamas to limp on in some form, the broader
diplomatic initiative Washington is pushing would see the terror group
marginalized in Gaza by alternative forces backed by America’s Arab
allies.
Last week the Wall Street Journal
quoted Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as telling Arab mediators that the
group would not budge from its demand for a permanent ceasefire, and
would not agree to disarm as part of any deal.
But Hamas may not be the only obstacle.
Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative and
thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of the deal,
Netanyahu has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented
publicly is not accurate and rejecting calls for Israel to cease all
fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
His war cabinet has signed off on a hostage deal proposal that would
bring about an end to the war if fully implemented, though the premier
contends in no uncertain terms that it would allow Israel to fulfill its
war aims — including toppling Hamas — before that.
Far-right members of his coalition have threatened to bring down the
government if it approves a hostage deal that stops the fighting before
the war goals are reached.
Family and friends of the remaining
hostages held in the Gaza Strip launch a blimp calling for their release
in Tel Aviv, June 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Biden has repeatedly declared that ceasefires were close over the
past several months, but there has been only one, a weeklong truce in
November during which 105 hostages were released.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 37,000 people in
the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far.
Of these, some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals or
through self-reporting by families, with the rest of the figure based on
Hamas “media sources.” The tolls, which cannot be verified, include
some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle.
Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on
October 7.
On the Israeli side, 295 soldiers and one police officer have been
killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations
along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also
been killed in the Strip.
